No, this ain’t your dad’s Sounders Reserves. But ultimately its success will be determined the same way.

For those of us who shivered in ones and twos at Renton Stadium back in the day, the notion of Sounders 2 opening before a big crowd is only one of the reasons our minds are blown.

To think that S2 and its fellow MLS reserves are part of respectable national league, complete with playoffs, and attracting more fan interest than the soccer equivalent of geeky baseball scouts with radar guns and stopwatches, is yet another sign of the thriving times in American futbol.

Reserve programs playing in the USL (formerly USL PRO) have now outstripped their parent clubs for the number of incarnations that have come and gone over 39 years. Their purpose has shifted from time to time. However when attached to a top-tier club, the focus has always been about producing talent, and that has not changed.

In 1976, Seattle was one of the first–if not the first–NASL club to initiate a reserve program. NASL quotas for North Americans were growing, and to remain competitive clubs needed to develop players to fill those slots.

First coached by Jimmy Gabriel, a true believer in America’s footballing future long before it was vogue, the Sounder B’s would probably be judged ragtag by today’s standard. There were very few games, the opposition was largely inferior (state league, out-of-season college and select teams) and the schedule was always in flux.

Ceremony consisted of a referee blowing his whistle. Linesmen were a luxury. And the stage was cramped, crowned gridiron abutting the revving jet engines in Renton. You get the picture. It was Spartan.

You clearly didn’t go to Sounders Reserves games to see pomp and circumstance. You came because it was cheap (sometimes free, sometimes $2), there were goals galore, and you were genuinely curious about getting a glimpse of the future. Maybe it was a veteran on the rebound from an injury or in need of a confidence boost. But once Jimmy McAlister ascended through the ranks of the reserves to become NASL Rookie of the Year, the reserves were capable of getting one’s attention.

That was, and is, probably the biggest payoff for patrons of S2 or any reserve team: seeing stars emerge. Nudging the fan next to you in three years and saying, “I saw Rossi before he even made S2; heckuva a free kick,” has instant cache, if that’s what you’re looking for.

Thanks to the new and improved packaging of MLS reserve teams in the USL, however, there’s some instant gratification to be had. There probably won’t be the 8-0 blowouts versus Vancouver’s Pegasus like the ol’ days; league matches promise to be much more competitive, and of course there will be the derbies with W2 and T2.

Folks who followed the original Sounders Reserves can reference more than 20 young pros who came through the ranks and graduated to NASL action. They can tell you they sat near enough Gabriel or Harry Redknapp to hear them yell instructions out to the field.

Obviously that’s unlikely to heard above the din at Starfire. Yet the expectation for the next McAlister or Peterson or Stock or Neagle or Yedlin is definitely there. And it’s that element, the development of future Sounders contributors, by which S2 will ultimately be judged.

So, let’s see ‘em play.